World News - Report: Army could be near breaking point Rapid troop rotations threaten institution, Pentagon-sponsored study says

Stretched by frequent troop rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has become a “thin green line” that could snap unless relief comes soon, according to a study for the Pentagon. Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer who wrote the report under a Pentagon contract, concluded that the Army cannot sustain the pace of troop deployments to Iraq long enough to break the back of the insurgency. He also suggested that the Pentagon’s decision, announced in December, to begin reducing the force in Iraq this year was driven in part by a realization that the Army was overextended. As evidence, Krepinevich points to the Army’s 2005 recruiting slump — missing its recruiting goal for the first time since 1999 — and its decision to offer much bigger enlistment bonuses and other incentives. “You really begin to wonder just how much stress and strain there is on the Army, how much longer it can continue,” he said in an interview. ... http://www.msnbc.msn.com

A Wyoming rancher with no connection to the University of Pittsburgh has given the school 4,700 acres of land littered with dinosaur fossils. The university plans to maintain the land, valued at $7 million, for students and researchers in geology, archaeology and other disciplines. The university plans to team up on programs there with the University of Wyoming and Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History. "They have a real gem out there," said Mary Dawson, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum who visited the ranch several years ago. The land is "littered with fossils."...http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1537761

Even while acknowledging that some al Qaeda leaders may have been killed in a recent U.S. military strike in his country, Pakistani President Musharraf today insisted it's his army that's winning the war on terrorism. He told an audience at the Nobel Institute in Norway that his military has now captured 700 al Qaeda terrorists. "We've taken away their sanctuaries, where they were in the hundreds. Now they are only in the dozens around in the mountains and we are chasing them," Musharraf said. But there are many more out there, and they want the world to know it, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart. Somehow, the ones being chased continue to find time to make home movies. The latest batch on a terrorist-linked Web site show volunteers being trained in small arms and tactics somewhere in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. They leave no doubt who their targets are – and even display ground to air missile capability. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/24/eveningnews/main1235931.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=World_1235931

A man on a weekend getaway was arrested after allegedly burglarizing the Fort Bragg motel where he was staying, then leaving a note indicating where to find him. Enrique Rodriguez Vasquez, 37, was arrested on suspicion of burglary and possession of methamphetamine after police confronted him at the Best Western motel room he'd described in the note. Police found a computer hard drive, television satellite device and $200 reported missing from the motel, said Fort Bragg Police Lt. Floyd Higdon. The stolen equipment was valued at $1,500. Vasquez's poorly spelled note berated the motel manager for being absent from the office. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1537718

Florida death row inmate Clarence Hill won a last-minute Supreme Court stay Tuesday night about an hour after he was scheduled to be executed for killing a police officer. It was not clear if the court's intervention would only briefly delay Hill's execution, which had been scheduled for 6 p.m. EST, to give justices additional time to review three separate stay requests. Witnesses had gathered at the Florida State Prison for the execution, which was put off for more than an hour before word came from the court. The witnesses were sent home after Justice Anthony M. Kennedy filed paperwork that said Hill's death sentence would "be stayed pending further order" of the justices. ...http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1537714&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Four teens were arrested on attempted murder charges after they beat up a man who was chosen at random, videotaping the planning and the attack "almost like a documentary," police said. A Drexel University engineering graduate student told police he was attacked Friday afternoon by four young men who beat him and tried to throw him in front of a moving car, authorities said. The 30-year-old victim was treated for a dislocated jaw. The suspects, walking around after a scheduled half-day of school, videotaped themselves before the attack as they discussed how they were going to assault a random victim, then took turns holding the camera during the beating, said police Lt. John Walker. ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-01-24-philadelphiateens_x.htm?csp=34